EZTrip.com International Destination Guide and Hotel Listings

Rather than take the road along the western shore of Lago Moquehue , you can make a gorgeous day hike around its southeastern side, through lands belonging to the Puel Mapuche community. You pass several Puel farmsteads as well as several diminutive, secluded lakes and beautiful woodland of ñire, radal, notro , araucaria and coihue . From Pehuenia, head west along the road to Moquehue until you get to the Puesta Sanitaria and La Angostura (25min). Past the tree nursery here, turn left and walk to the footbridge (10min) over the delightful narrows. Immediately on the other side is El Puente   campsite (an alternative option to staying in Villa Pehuenia). Continue on the main track, ignoring a faint trail to your right. You pass an inlet of Lago Aluminé on your left, and then the road climbs upwards alongside an attractive gorge. You come to a small hut where the rough road forks (30min). Take the right-hand fork, usually blocked by a barrier: here the local Mapuche charge motorists a toll ($2) and sell artesanía in summer. Walkers are allowed to continue for free, but are asked to respect the environment by not lighting fires or littering. Also respect the locals' right not to be photographed.

Just past the hut is a tranquil wooded lagoon, Cari Laufquén. Another 35 minutes brings you to a Mapuche farmstead between a pair of shallow lagoons - the larger is called Pichún ; the smaller Laguna Verde . Twenty minutes further on, there's a larger lake, Matetué (ignore the names if using the IGM map, as they've been wrongly placed). The track forks: take the left-hand fork, as the other runs down to the house you can see by the lake. This left fork, a cart track, curls around the lake to another farm, marked by a few Lombardy poplars and a proud araucaria. At the private gate in the fence, the main track ends. A path hugs the outside of the fence and disappears into woodland, but follow this for only about 30m past the gate, where you dog-leg back away from the fence up a horse trail.

In about ten minutes you enter some fine mature mixed woodland, and in another ten the uphill climb brings you onto a plateau, from where the path drops steeply to an exquisite, abandoned homestead by Lago Moquehue (ignore a left-hand fork on your way down). There's a fine beach here, but better ones slightly further on. Follow the wire fence left (southwest) to pick up the path, and after ten minutes you come to a tiny scoop of a beach by a ruined hut. This is a tempting place to camp free, but you need permission to do so. Ten minutes further on, along the larger neighbouring strand, you reach the mouth of the crystalline Río Blanco , which you'll need to ford.

The last section of the walk from Río Blanco to Moquehue (2hr-2hr 30min) follows a clear path, but involves some dips and climbs, as you scout around the steep banks that line the lake shore. The path heads along the beach before clipping woodland and cutting across the gap between the mainland and a jutting promontory hill. You pass some tremendous stands of giant coihue and, in places, araucaria. After about an hour, you cross the first of three reasonably sized brooks, spaced at ten-minute intervals. Soon after negotiating the last brook you come across a sign marked "Reserva Araucaria", and then rejoin a proper track at Camping Trenel . From here it's around ten minutes to La Flor del Quillahue in Moquehue, and the same again to the checkpoint and the main part of the scattered village.